Full Circle – Philately

A hobby we enjoy in our youth can last a lifetime, but a lifetime could change our hobby into something else.

Philately

The Backstory

I’ve often wondered about this curious word; Philately. It is the study, appreciation, and collection of postage stamps and postal history. Ever since I entered the hobby the word seemed like a concocted term designed to make stamp collecting sound more interesting.

The term originated with Georges Herpin in 1864 when he combined two Greek words, Philos + Ateleia, meaning, “an attraction or affinity for something + exempt from duties and taxes“. The purchase of postage stamps allowed letters to arrive untaxed to the recipient. Based on that, it seems I may have been onto something.

Philately

I became a Philatelist in 1979.

I was a 5^th grader at the time, just 11 years old, when our class was introduced to the Benjamin Franklin Stamp Club.

We formed a monthly in-class activity where each of us would do show-and-tell, trade stamps with each other, and build our budding collections.

My interest grew and I truly enjoyed the activity, but mostly appreciated it as a convenient distraction from school work!

Word of my newfound hobby apparently spread to the family as I started receiving letters in the mail from aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins stuffed full of interesting stamps torn from various pieces of mail they had received. I remained active with the stamp club even into high school, meeting with collector friends from time-to-time to share and trade. My collection grew steadily over the next few years in this manner.

Philately

I will never forget when my grandmother came to visit us during this time. She had come as the bearer of bad news, informing us that Great Uncle Epp had passed away. I hardly knew him, meeting only once, because he lived far away in Mississippi where we rarely traveled. As we gathered around the table to listen and talk about Epp, she told me she had a special gift from the old uncle. It was his stamp collection!

He had apparently been collecting since the 1930’s and had built a respectable lot.

I was enthralled as she laid it out before me, showing me hundreds of stamps much older than any I had ever seen or even imagined existed.

There were also some vintage coins and an old Confederate $20 bill from 1864.

Philately

On that day nearly a thousand new stamps were infused into my collection, elevating it to the next level. I was a very proud Philatelist with a prized assortment of highly desirable issues dating back to the mid-19^th century.

With my interest piqued for coins and currency, I also began venturing into Numismatics. Apparently another concocted term representing the study or collection of coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects.

My younger brother, David, followed suit, joining the stamp club in 1982.

He and I spent many hours together working on our collections.

We eventually combined them into a single collection, which has been with me ever since.

I have many fond memories of those times hanging out and sharing stamp stories, among other brotherly gossip!

Philately

As I grew older and progressed through high school my philatelic interests dwindled in favor of other things. The collection was largely ignored as I pursued athletics, girls, and other social activities. See related stories, Full Circle – Like Father Like Son and Full Circle – An Unknown Future Realized.

After high school graduation my full attention was focused on the next life chapter, where college and adulting took center stage. With no time in my life for a hobby, the collection was packed away and forgotten for the next decade.

When life slowed down again in the early 1990s (see Full Circle – Abilene), my philatelic interests returned. I liberated my stamp collection from hibernation, refamiliarized myself with the neat items I had acquired as a kid, and then attended a local coin and stamp show in Salina, Kansas.

That was my first ever experience at a coin and stamp show.

The vast array of never-before-seen stamps and unimagined accessories rekindled my passion for the hobby.

Thousands of domestic and international stamps, coins, currency, albums, guidebooks, tools, and supplies put a whole new sparkle in my eye.

Over the next few years, I bought and bartered with local collectors and dealers growing my collection to nearly 10,000 pieces. Most of those items were identified and mounted into protective display albums. I expanded the hobby to include hundreds of coins, adding to the few pieces old Uncle Epp had collected. I was prouder than ever of what I had built.

Life changed again as a growing family and career became my priority. In 1995 the collection was packed away again and faded away to time and memory.

The Full Circle Moment

The years passed by and thoughts of stamp collecting would occasionally cross my mind, especially when I noticed an interesting stamp on a letter or package. I tossed hundreds of these into a box and every so often a family member would still send me an envelope full of interesting pieces. So, without much effort the collection was still growing.

Nearly 30 years later, in 2024, I realized I had some time on my hands to revisit the old hobby. As I unboxed the collection and thumbed through the many pages of old stamps my mind drifted back in time to 1979 and the Benjamin Franklin Stamp Club.

So many memories returned, good and not-so-good, from my younger days. Running with friends, family dynamics, school events, summertime fun. It is a wonder to me to realize those days were nearly a half-century ago. The passage of time can be a curious thing. A good friend once told me, “The days are long, but the years fly by“. A strange paradox, but oh so true!

When I took stock of the many unprocessed pieces that had been thrown into the box since 1995, I recalled how tedious and time consuming it was to build this collection. Rather than stirring up old passions and interest for the hobby it had quite the opposite effect. This full circle moment was a mixed response of happy memories and dread!

The Meaning

I think the underlying meaning for me in this full circle moment is yet another realization of how life experiences and the passage of time can change us. What was once a passion and priority for me has come to represent a tedious burden.

When I examine the younger versions of myself through the eyes of my 55+ years, I begin to understand why the hobby meant so much to me. In my early collector years, 1979-1983, I was a confused kid with little or no guidance during the tumultuous pre-teen and teenager years. Compound that with the split of my parents then one might realize the emotional baggage I was carrying, and how ill-equipped I was at that age to deal with them. Stamp collecting offered a mental distraction at a time when I needed it most.

Later, as a young adult from 1992-1995 the hobby provided safe-haven for an impressionable young man who could have easily been caught-up in some unhealthy behaviors. It directed my youthful energy into a constructive pastime that built something of value and offered a sense of accomplishment.

Philately no longer motivates me that way. For posterity’s sake, I have invested the time to clean-up the old collection, taken an inventory, and am now seeking an appraisal value for it. Now at over 12,000 pieces I am confident it will land in the right person’s hands and provide as many years of enjoyment for them as it has for me.

Revelation 21:6-7

Steve Coryell

See Full Bio